Base Tag
by irine18
Summary: What does a power ranger do for fun? Jack Landors shows you how.
1. Boredom

It was a rainy day in New Tech City. Commander Cruger and Dr. Kat Manx had left the base to personally report new findings on Gruumm to General Birdie. This left Bsquad in charge of the base.

Things were going slowly in the command center:

SPD Ranger 5 – Sydney had a red ball in her hand, with as little effort as possible she threw it out of the open door and watched apathetically as R.I.C, their robot canine companion, brought the ball back in.

SPD Ranger 4 – Z sat on the floor and propped herself against a convenient bulkhead. In her hands was Power Rangers: A History written by Dr. Thomas Oliver.

SPD Ranger 3 – Bridge was underneath one of the command consuls tinkering with its hardware.

SPD Ranger 2 – Sky was alternating between staring at the sensors looking for trouble and glaring at…

SPD Ranger 1 – Jack snored loudly as he slept in a roller chair.

They were all incredibly bored.

"God, I wish that Gruumm would just attack us so I don't die of boredom," said Syd as she threw the ball out the door for the 57th time. As if answering her wish, the klaxons started blaring.

"Wait! I didn't mean it!"

Jack fell out of his chair startled. He immediately jumped and yelled "SPD Emergency." To his surprise, he didn't morph. The red ranger then realized he was holding out his cell phone. Z didn't even raise her head from the book as the alarms kept going and Sky scanned the sensor readings finding nothing.

The sirens stopped as soon as the started.

"Sorry guys, false alarm," Bridge sheepily stated as he stuck his head out from the consul. "I wanted to see what this thingy in here does, just wait let me show you."

There was a resounding no from the rest of the rangers. They gathered around the circular main consul of the command center.

"There's gotta be something we can do to keep busy, come on guys think," asked Z.

Bridge perked up, "Well Z, we can play a game of lightball?"

"Nah, I'm tired of that."

"Well, we can take a run on the mud courses, do some training." Sky suggested.

"Oh no we won't, I haven't gotten the mud out of my hair from last time," Syd exclaimed.

Sky looked at Jack, "Does our great leader have any suggestions?" Jack looked up at him and smiled. "Yes, my blue ranger, I do. Follow me."

Jack led the rangers back to the rec room. He stood in the center as the rest got comfy on the couches.

"Well, when me and Z were younger and had nothing to do we would play tag."

"Oh, come on that's lame. It's a kid's game." Sky said as he dismissed the idea.

"Wait, but have you ever played it with anyone who had special powers like we do?

"What I suggest is that we make it even more interesting, genetic powers can be used and we can go all over the base."

Z jumped in and asked, "And how do we know if we're tagged? Just a tap is a little bit simple."

"We can….., oh I know, morphers. Good practice for us, if you can take away that person's morpher than they are it. Give it back and let them do the chasing."

"Okay sounds alright but we better not do any damage to the ground or each other," added Syd.

"Alright, Mom. Since I came up with the idea, I'll be it first. I'll give you guys to a full minute before I start chasing."

The others sat still digesting what they were about to do.

"Get going!" Jack yelled. The scattered in different directions as he counted.

"60….55…50….40….30…10,9,8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1. Ready or not here I come!"


	2. Old Friends

Jack ran out of the rec room at full speed wondering which way to go. If he went to his left he would reach the dorm rooms, to the right was the command center, and straight ahead was the simudeck. He decided to go to the dorm rooms, amongst the beds and the closets there would be plenty of places to hide.

He slowed down his pursuit as he approached the girls' room. The hallway he was traveling down was coming to an end and the bedrooms were just around the corner.

He halted when he heard a girlish giggle come from around the corner. Playing it safe, the red ranger phased into the nearby wall. He stuck his head just enough so that he could see the back of the yellow ranger in front of him.

_Oh this will just be too easy_, he thought to himself as he reached for Z's morpher. To his surprise, his hand went straight through the morpher and her whole body. As he stumbled forward he found his arms being pulled out of the wall. Jack fell down and to his dismay he was looking at two more Z's. _Oh, shit._

"You fell right for my trap," the Z's said in unison as they steepled their fingers together. They immediately lifted Jack up onto his feet and held onto to him as he struggled.

"No fair ganging up on me!" he yelled. Jack kept struggling as he watched another Z approach. The other ones parted as she focused in on Jack.

"It's been awhile since we took each other on hasn't it? Well, it's time for some fun." She smiled devilishly at her captive. "Okay girls, get him."

Jack watched in terror as the Z's approached him, he didn't know what to expect. He closed his eyes and waited. All he could feel was something cold being put on his face and his hair being pulled. He struggled and struggled but he couldn't break their hold. After ten terrifying minutes, they pulled back. He opened his eyes and saw a mirror in front of his face. He looked at the mirror and was silent.

_Z has gone too far._

He had bright purple eye shadow, neon pink blush, and red lipstick on. His hair was braided into a funky up do. The rage built inside of him.

"No one, not even you, can make me look like a girl!" He used all his strength and phased his arms out of their grasps. The real Z gasped and hid behind more replicates. The other Z's charged at Jack. He was ready. He grabbed one and flung her into five more. He blocked the high punch that was coming from the left while kicking another Z in the stomach.

Another one grabbed his arm, but went right straight through it. Jack grabbed the surprised Z's arm and spun her around; effectively knocking over the other Z's surrounding him.

Jack kept phasing parts of his body so he could keep away from their grabby hands. Finally all the Z's fell on him at once, creating a huge dog pile. The real Z smirked as she watched her best friend smashed by all the replicates. The smirk was not on her face for long when she saw the ghostly form of Jack appear out of the top of the pile. His face was serious and he cracked a few knuckles as he approached her.

"You smudged my lipstick."

Jack's fist came flying at her face and Z blocked it with her forearm. She ducked down and tried to sweep Jack to the floor but he jumped up and was ready to elbow her. The yellow ranger rolled out of the way and flipped back on to her feet. She brought her arms up and was ready to go. They circled around a few times before she did a quick left jab to his chin. He flinched away and tried to kick at her now exposed side. Just as quickly her arm came down for a low block.

They continued to work at each other, arms and legs almost blurring from the kicking and punching. It was clear that at this rate the fight could go on forever. Jack made a decision. _I hope this won't do too much damage._ When Z went in for a right hook, Jack dived for her midsection. Using all the strength he had left, he did what he had never done before, phased through a living object. He could feel the obstruction of Z's body as he past through her. Z didn't move, too stunned at what was happening to react.

Jack rolled to the ground and did a somersault trying to find his standing. He stood up triumphant with Z's morpher in hand.

Z looked at Jack and went up to him, "Don't ever do that to me again, that felt so weird." All he could do was grin as he opened up the morpher.

"Okay, kiddies. Z is it!"

He handed it back to her and started running. Before he was out of her sight he yelled. "Good luck! You're gonna need it."

Z shook off the weird feeling and looked at the pile of replicates at her side. "Great job, guys but I think we're gonna have to work a little harder." Z literally pulled herself back together and started counting.

Who should Z fight next? Let me know in the reviews.


	3. Goldenrod

Z tried to shake off the feeling of Jack passing through her body. Pulling back into one Z helped a little bit, but she expended large amounts of energy to stay in charge of all her replicates. She leaned against the gray wall of the hallway and replicated three Zs. They immediately crept in three different directions: the simudeck, the command center, and back to the recreation room.

The farther each Z got, the harder they were to maintain and control. SimuZ, she always named them relative to position, was sticking close to what little shadow was available. The hallways were always lit fairly well. She could hear the footsteps of someone who was going slow and methodically. A whip around of braids as the figure's head turned identified him as Jack.

"Come on, Z, you should know better than that. No tag-backs." He chided as he waved around a finger.

"And purple doesn't go with your eyes." SimuZ pouted before she disappeared. Jack let out a sigh of relief before rubbing off the makeup on his sleeve.

_Damn, I forgot about that rule,_ the original Z thought before she went to concentrating on CommandZ. CommandZ took a different strategy, confidently striding down the hallway. The Z's, to a degree, always took on different aspect of the original's identity, in the short time they appeared this was not always apparent. Z didn't want to appear out of control of her replicates and her emotions. CommandZ peeked into the command center seeing that Sky was there. _He's probably not taking the game seriously_.Sky was watching the sensors like a good cadet, but once in awhile he would glance out the door looking for a stray ranger. CommandZ moved closer to the door but felt the familiar numbness of too much distance. She looked down at her hand and saw fingers disappearing. Eventually, all of her body disappeared but not until Sky saw her waving with half a body in the doorway.

_Another one down, at least I know where he is._ The main yellow ranger then started following in the direction of RecZ so as not to lose distance between them. RecZ was the more cheerful spunky Z, she was practically bouncing down the halls with the thought of playing tag with her friends. Z caught up with her replicate, exasperated with her behavior.

"Please Z, don't pull me back in! I'm having so much fun. You'll see I'm gonna catch someone." RecZ begged.

"Shhhh. You'll give us away. I won't get rid of you, if you'll just be quiet." Z concentrated and sent another Z inside of the recreation room. The one inside the room could see Bridge hiding behind one of the couches. She crept up beside him.

"What's up, Bridge?" Z whispered.

"Shhh. I'm hiding from whoever's it. Do you know who's it Z?" Bridge didn't question who Z snuck up behind him.

"Well, technically I'm it." She whispered into his ear. He immediately jumped up from his hiding spot and ran for the door. Unfortunately RecZ was there to block him.

"Yay! I found you! Hand over the morpher!" She demanded cutely. Bridge turned around again only to see another Z. He found himself in a similar situation that Jack was in earlier, too many Z's and not enough exits. RecZ was feeling mischevious and looked over to the real Z who was standing in the doorway.

"Can we have some fun before we tag him?"

"Sure, knock myselves out."

Bridge looked like a deer caught in headlights as the Z's moved in for the kill. "Now Z, or is it Zs? There's no need for any kind of torture." His hand moved to his morpher as he lifted it up. "See here's my morpher."

"Not yet, we have to get you back for that mustard and banana toast we had to eat." RecZ smiled devilishly as she watched the green ranger get restrained by two other Z's. "Tickle time!" Fingers dived for armpits and stomach sides.

"No, ha ha ha, anything but that, he he he he, I can't stand it! Z make them stop!"

"No more experimental toast flavors? You'll find another guinea pig?"

"Ha ha ha, but you're the perfect test subject, ha ha ha, I thought you liked my toast, it's buttery!" The sheer determination of his fingers to do their trademark buttery waggle allowed Bridge to break free of the Z's grasp. He said buttery again and freed his other hand.

"Do not underestimate the power of toast!" He grabbed the nearest Z and threw her against the gaggle of Zs to his right side. RecZ dived and tried to grab him around the middle but missed by a mile as he moved out of the way. Bridge closed the distance to the doorway. The real Z swore and started to pull her replicates back together. It was only her and Bridge in the room now. She could see his fingers aching either to waggle butteringly or to tickle her as she tickled him.

His right hand went for her left side but Z was able to catch it and twist it behind his back. He broke free and once again tried to reach her side. She reached for it but he pulled away too fast. As she went forward, Bridge used her momentum to throw her at the couch. She planted her hands on the seat and flipped over the back. The green ranger followed and jumped up on the couch only to get a face full of cushion. They raced around the couch laughing and throwing the cushions at each other.

When they ran out of cushions, Z approached Bridge and tried to grab the morpher he had placed back on his belt. Their hands blurred as they parried and blocked back and forth. Z was starting to get tired until Bridge stopped completely and stared at her.

"Uh, Bridge? We were in the middle of a fight?"

"…," He could not get an intelligible word out of his mouth.

"Bridge?"

"…..goldenrod…"

"What? What do you mean by goldenrod? Hey doesn't it feel drafty in here?" Z felt a chill and looked down. During the fight, the jacket zipper that she had neglected to fix earlier that week had come all the way down, revealing the yellow bra that she had underneath. She blushed as she hastily pulled the two halves of her jacket together.

"….goldenrod…"

"Oh well, Yoink!" She pulled the morpher from his belt while avoiding any contact; it looked like Bridge's head might explode if she did that. She opened it up and contacted the others, "Bridge is it." She clipped it back on and slapped Bridge's face lightly.

"Hey perv, you're it." Z immediately left and headed straight for her room to find another jacket.

"….goldenrod…"


	4. Roommates

Drool dripped out Bridge's mouth as he though of sunshine, lemons, and buttered toast. It's not like he hasn't seen a woman naked, he did have lots of biology books. But the sight of Z in just her bra seemed to overload the scattered processor that was his brain.

The object of his distraction popped up in front of him, new jacket fully intact. She waved her hand in front of his face and mumbled something about oversexed males.

"Hello? Bridge?"

"Yes, Z?"

"Shouldn't you be off chasing other people now?"

"Yes, Z." He still stood in the rec room doing nothing.

Z sighed, "Bridge, I got a plate of toast for you."

"Is it buttery?" He waggled his fingers in front of his mouth.

"There, you finally snapped out of it," Z smirked, "I'm going to help you out. I saw Sky at the command center."

"Thanks, Z."

"You're welcome," she tilted her head to the side and smiled, "And Bridge?"

"Yeah?"

"I'm flattered."

Bridge smiled back and ran out of the rec room. Z giggled and disappeared.

-+-+-

The green ranger ran down to the long hallway, pausing every few yards to check the psychic environment. Besides the usual colors of alertness and worry, he noticed the blue aura of Sky get deeper and deeper as he approached the command center. Amongst the blue were squiggles of orange annoyance and small ovals of white anticipation. Sky was set to do his duty but was slightly interested in the game they were playing.

Bridge crouched against the wall and slid to the door, trying not to make a sound. _Finally, all those spy movies are going to pay off!_ He kept his eyes moving, scanning for any movement. Bridge was so stealthy he didn't even notice that he walked right past the command center door.

"Uh, Bridge?" Sky spotted him in the hallway.

"Shhhhhh….I'm hunting wangers."

"Yeah, good job."

"Wait," Bridge looked back at Sky, "You do know I'm it right?"

"Yup." He stood in the doorway casually.

The green ranger stood up and scratched his head, "Shouldn't you be running away from me now?"

"Nah. You won't be able to take away my morpher," Sky said arrogantly. He walked back into the command center and returned to checking the sensors.

Bridge followed him in, "What makes you think I can't beat you?"

"I am a stronger better fighter. You can't take me."

Bridge frowned, "Yes I can."

"No, you can't"

"Yes, I can."

"No, you can't"

"No, I can't."

"Yes, you can. Wait. Shut up Bridge." Sky said exasperatedly.

"I'll fight you right here right now!" Bridge took up a fighting stance.

The blue ranger sighed, "Fine." He went into his fighting stance. They rushed at each other and were about to meet when…

"Wait!" Bridge yelled.

"What is it this time?"

"We can't fight in here, we might damage the controls."

"Fine." They both walked out in to the hallway.

"Is this better?" Sky asked.

"Perfect." Bridge dropped low and swept kicked Sky when he wasn't ready.

Sky rolled and stood back up again. He rushed at Bridge, "Aaaahhhhh."

Only to find that Bridge moved to his side and let the blue ranger run into a wall. Sky shook his head to clear it and grappled Bridge around the waist. They rolled around on the floor neither one gaining ground over the other. The rangers separated from each other and stood up panting.

"Geez, Sky did anyone tell you that you fight like a girl?" Bridge said trying out a new strategy.

"Well, at least I'm not weak like one." Sky lunged at Bridge again, missing by a few inches.

"At least, I don't mumble in my sleep!" He made a grab for the morpher.

"You snore!" Sky blocked Bridge's attempt with his arm.

"You wear too much hair gel!"

"You always leave computer parts all over the room!"

"You spend two hours in the bathroom every morning!"

"You leave toast crumbs everywhere."

Bridge had had enough, "That's it! The gloves are coming off." Bridge stripped off his leather gloves and waved his hands in the air. He could see from the aura that Sky was about to jab at his face.

Bridge grabbed his arm and twisted it around Sky's back. Sky struggled a few moments before breaking free. He tried getting a hit on Bridge but to his astonishment, all his attempts were being dodged.

Bridge weaved his body around the flying hands and feet and snaked his hand closer to the morpher. He ducked another kick from Sky and grabbed the morpher.

"I got it!" the green ranger waved the morpher triumphantly in the air and turned to Sky just as the blue ranger threw a punch at his stomach.

"Ooof"

"Sorry, Bridge." Sky tried to tend to his roommate, "I didn't know you had my morpher. Are you alright?"

In a strained voice Bridge said, "Yeah, I'll be…..ow, ow, ow… OK." He opened up the morpher, "Sky is it."


	5. Misunderstanding

"Damnit, I can't believe Bridge got the best of me." Sky muttered to himself as he paced down the hallway. He headed towards the training rooms, hoping to spot someone and tag them so that he could return to duty.

"Damn, Jack." He cursed, they shouldn't be spending this time playing games. The fate of the world was at stake. If something attacked or God forbid that Cruger came back early, all the rangers would be in trouble. Sky saw a figure in pink dash around a corner he sighed and ran after her.

"Syd! Come back here!"

"Eeeek!" She screamed as she ran away from him. They chased each other through the voluminous hallways, her laughing echoing to the farthest corners. "You can't catch me!" All this did was aggravate Sky further, Sydney always seemed childish to him. He ran faster and summoned as much energy as he could.

Cadets and technicians stared as the usually cool blue ranger ran frantically after the pink one. Some people were used inadvertently as obstacles impeding Sky's path. Frustrated he decided to provide some obstacles of his own.

He held his hand out, walking fast instead of running, and concentrated. A small forcefield formed around it. Its blue light pulsed as he fed more and more energy into it. When the forcefield started to throb rapidly Sky let out a yell, "Yahhhhh", and aimed his hand at Sydney. The forceball spread as it approached her and pushed her forward when it hit her.

She stumbled at the jolt of energy but kept running. Her eyes were wide as she looked back at Sky to see him charging up another forcefield. She managed to dodge this one only to see a barrage of forcefields coming at her.

Sky aimed and fired off another set, finding it easier to do each time. They were getting stronger, but not strong enough to hold Sydney for more than a few seconds. He continued following her at brisk pace, firing forcefields to cut off any escape routes.

They arrived at the training rooms, Sydney ran in so she could try to evade Sky, she managed to run circles around him and reach the door, only to find it blocked by another forcefield.

He grabbed her shoulders and watched as the little woman grab his arm and flip him over her head. Sky landed on the ground with a thud and got back up onto shaky legs.

"Where'd you learn that from?"

"Z and I have been using Boom as a practice dummy," she said as they circled around each other. She side kicked him low then high, which he blocked with his arms. He grabbed her leg and twisted it. She rotated to the side and landed on her other foot.

Sydney swept kicked Sky and knocked him to the ground. She climbed on top the much taller man and pinned him. Sky struggled against her weight as she used gravity to her advantage.

"Syd, could you please get off of me!"

She looked at him in outrage, "Are you calling me fat?"

"No, I am saying that you are crushing my kidneys."

"Oh." She smiled down at him, "Well, I'm not getting off until you tell me that I'm pretty."

"You're pretty," the blue ranger said as he tried to push her off.

"How can you tell me that I'm pretty when you're not even looking at me."

"God woman, you're pretty."

"You're not looking at me."

"Syd, please get off."

"Look at me!"

"Hey, have you guys seen Bridge? Woahh!" Boom entered the room. The wrestling pair froze.

They looked at Boom.

They looked at each other.

They looked at the position they were in.

"It's not what you think!" they both said in unison.

"Yeah right, wait till Kat hears about this." Boom said. Fearless for some unknown reason, he started to chant in a singsong voice, "Syd and Sky, sitting in a tree, K I S S I N G."

"Oh, I'm going to kill you," Sky tried to get up to strangle Boom. Unfortunately, Syd was still on top of him. His attempt only resulted in an even more compromising position with him on top.

"Sky! Move your hands!" She said, afraid to look at where his hands had landed. He lifted off his hands and lost the only support separating his body from Sydney's and fell back down on her.

"Sky!"

Boom laughed as he walked out of the room Sky grabbed Sydney's morpher, said "Syd's it," and handed it back to her and ran out after Boom.

"Boom, come back here! Don't you say a word! We were just sparring! I'll let you use my morpher! Boom! Boooooooom!"

Author's Note: If you recognize the look-at-me scene, congratulations you've watched the 40 year-old Virgin.


End file.
